Mary Mangai

Senior Lecturer, University of Pretoria
I acquired my Master’s degree in economic development and policy analysis from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. I obtained a PhD in management sciences from the Department of Public Administration, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands.

I studied the effect of poverty on education in Nigeria during my Master's programme. My investigation of the effect of poverty on education shows that the “quantity-quality trade-off” is vital to the investment households are ready to make in the educational development of their children. Household per capita expenditure and fertility (the number of children in a household) were highly significant in explaining child school enrolment in Nigeria. Households with high per capita expenditure were found to invest more in their children’s education.

After my Master's’ programme my research interest shifted to the co-production (citizen inclusivity) of public services. Co-production is defined as the active and direct involvement of citizens in public services and policy cycles. Co-production is a resurgent topic in public administration and management research. The idea is that government alone should not develop and implement policies and/or services, citizens should be actively involved in the planning and delivery as well.

My research has focused on the co-production of public services (healthcare delivery and water provision) in Africa. Coproduction is still an emerging concept in Africa. The practice is widely used in innovative ways in developed countries, with citizens being asked to co-design, co-commission, co-assess, co-deliver, co-implement and co-execute public services.

I studied the coproduction of healthcare and water provision extensively in my PhD research. I research, in particular, the policy instruments required to sustain coproduction practice, the drivers of coproduction, citizen resourcefulness in coproduction practice, and the segmentation of coproduction in countries like Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.

My research is now focused on the achievement of SDG 16 (peace and inclusive society) through the coproduction of neighbourhood security in South Africa and Germany by 2030. The pragmatic research approach is aimed at developing innovative and practical models of coproducing neighbourhood security in both countries. I hope that there will be ‘mutual learning’ from the contextual differences and/or similarities in neighbourhood security in these two countries.

Besides my research projects, I am a board member and a senior consultant at the Centre for Collective Learning and Action (CCoLA) – a non-governmental organisation at Leiden, Netherlands. My responsibilities at CCoLA include (i) developing diaspora humanitarianism capacity in the Netherlands, (ii) coaching and mentoring Dutch students studying global health at the University of Applied Science in Amsterdam during their internships and fieldwork in the health sector in Africa, and (iii) co-promoting the values and goals of CCoLA.

I am also a member of the International Institute of Administrative Studies (IIAS) Study Group on Coproduction of Public Services.

Lastly, I have blindly reviewed manuscripts for Administratio Publica, Journal of Public Administration and Governance (JPAG), Heliyon and Environmental health Insights journals.